Swensons fans turn to Change.org asking eatery to bring back the original cheese
Swensons President and CEO Jeff Flowers talks about the restaurant’s new cheddar American cheese on Monday in Akron.
Swensons quietly cut the cheese and it seems most fans have hardly even noticed.
Well. That’s not exactly accurate.
The beloved Akron-based drive-in where runners bring the food to your vehicle actually quit slicing its own cheese and even changed the vendor some time ago — and some fans are just now noticing.
An online petition has been circulating on Change.org for about a month asking the eatery to bring back its original cheese.
Swensons President and CEO Jeff Flowers said it actually switched the vendor that supplied tons of blocks of American cheese for all of its 19 locations, two food trucks and two ghost kitchens in Cleveland and Columbus (that cater solely to online deliveries) about a year ago.
The original Swensons Hamburger and Hot Pork stand in Akron.
But — like anything at the Ohio chain that had its humble start back in the 1930s, when Wesley “Pop” Swenson began flipping burgers and selling them out of the back of his car near Akron’s Buchtel High School — this dramatic change was not as sudden as it may appear.
This is the same joint that, in addition to its famous Galley Boy hamburger that comes with an old-school signature green olive on a toothpick in the bun, still has the likes of fried bologna, original recipe sloppy Joes and even egg salad sandwiches on its menu.
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Flowers said tradition is something Swensons takes seriously.
He should know.
Flowers has been with the company for some 21 years, since he was a student at the University of Akron, and never left.
He’s worked every position imaginable.
He started out as a so-called runner, who takes orders from the vehicles (with their headlights on) and then sprints back inside, only to run freshly…
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